Escape Emporium

General Info

Atmosphere Upon Arrival:

Jason– This place looks like what I assume a show home lobby looks like. Very cool and chill and fleek and all that stuff.

Lamya – We were the only ones playing at Escape Emporium on a Thursday night way out in the south-side business park they are located in (south of Ellerslie, just off Parsons Road). While the bookings inexplicably showed that rooms were booked or unavailable, no one else was there. It was very quiet. The building is brand new and beautiful. Like, I-wish-my-living-room-looked-like-this beautiful. Just like anything new, it feels a little devoid of personality, but I don’t really think that’s how anyone is choosing an escape room. It’s nice.

Service:

Jason– Lamya is going to say all the things here. The service was very friendly and welcoming.

Lamya – Our host was very nice. He even waved us into the building because we were there early and thought we needed to kill time. He was very eager to help and make our experience great. But I have to say, I’m starting to get a little tired of people saying how unique and great their place is. Of course that’s what you say, it’s your business! But the longer you go on about it, the more unique and great your business better be. And as you’ll find in my half of the review for the first room we tried there (The Treasure of the Pirate King), it didn’t live up to that hype.

On top of that, Escape Emporium has one of the more infuriating ways to give clues/hints while you’re playing. They relay hints via a monitor in the escape room. Every time they need to tell you something, it rings like a phone. Not being able to talk face-to-face meant that thing rang about 40 times while we were in there because it was really hard to clarify those clues. It’s a clunky, weird way to give hints that might keep me from going there again until I’m absolutely desperate. Again, just to be fair, our host really did want to help us succeed, but that system just gets in the way.